Dr. Hira Singh
International Director
Asia Crime Prevention Foundation

The phenomenon of crime which is the focal point of any correctional endeavour has baffled humankind down the ages. In the absence of any foolproof theory of crime causation, it is difficult to visualize a correctional strategy to be equally effective in every situation. Despite this position, once an individual is identified as offender and comes within the purview of the system created to deal with him, there is no option but to treat him in a manner that helps him to refrain from further crime and to rehabilitate himself as a law-abiding citizen.
In the backdrop of a rapidly changing crime scenario, any action to enhance the rehabilitative functions of corrections has to start with the rationalization of sentencing policy. The criminal justice system, in consonance with its universally cherished tenets, has to be equally fair and equitable to the poor as to the rich, in actual operation. The range of dispositional alternatives has to be so widened as to enable the court to place a person found guilty in a setting which is most conducive to his correctional treatment.
It is well recognized that as long as certain types of offenders are required to be segregated from society in the interest of public safety, and are expected to return as better human beings than what they were when incarcerated, the therapeutic role of prisons could not be undermined. Apart from an urgent need to bridge the gap that exists between rhetoric and reality, there is now a candid awareness that the rehabilitative function of prison administration can be accomplished only in an atmosphere that fosters human rights of persons in custody and generates among them a will to improve their quality of life.

An investment on the provision of correctional services in relation to such persons is not only productive but also conducive to improving the quality of life among the strata they come from and have ultimately to return to. In this respect, a priority attention needs to be given to raising the standards of educational and vocational training programmes with all the necessary technical inputs, in close conjunction with community-based specialized agencies
Whereas the rationale behind the segregation from society of certain types of offenders in the public interest and their treatment in closed institutions is firmly established, the correctional potential of non-custodial treatment has yet to be fully explored in most of the countries in this region.
In this context, one has to understand that corrections as a formal system, even at its best, will always have a limited reach in reintegrating offenders into society. While it is legitimately concerned with the mainstreaming of erring individuals, it cannot by itself undo the aberrations of the wider socio-economic and political systems that may also be contributing to crime. Nevertheless, it certainly plays an important role in helping offenders to reorganize themselves and to revive their strength to withstand and to overcome factors responsible for deviant behaviour. If the reformation and rehabilitation of offenders is the only logical goal of any penal policy, correction has to be recongnised and developed as the un